Hello, my name is Ian Firkins and I am a very ordinary angler. If there was a school report for fishing, mine would read "tries hard, could do better"! See below my attempts to catch big fish (well, any fish!) of various species from the rivers Trent, Derwent, Dove and Soar.

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15/11/2010 - River Soar

A new rod and a new river. Had been after a Drennan Medium Feeder rod for a while for my small river chubbing. Finally managed to pick up a mint one off eBay for £50. Decided to go and christen it on the Soar. Had bought a club ticket a few weeks ago, but had never got round to using it. Stretch had certainly looked chubby when I went for a recce. Lots of creases and near bank features.

Anybody home?

Arrived to find that my colleagues from Fisheries had just been through the section with the electrofishing boat looking for wayward salmon! Not brilliant news, but they had turned up a number of fish of different species and the information was filed away for future use. Had also thrown a load of old loaves in the bait bucket with a view to fishing flake and crust over mashed bread. However, river was still carrying quite a bit of colour. Luckily I had two tins of black pepper spam with me as well. One was chopped up and some freebies dropped in a number of likely looking spots. Left everything to rest while I set up, then worked downstream. First swim drew a blank. Had a few tentative knocks in the second swim, before tip pulled round and I soon had my first Soar chub of 3lb 10oz in the net.

Chubby!

Continued to work downstream, dropping a bit more bait into each swim when I'd finished before going back to the top and working down again. Had four more chub from 2lb upwards before the bait ran out. All fought like stink. Was definitely a refreshing change from sitting behind bite alarms and to have a chub actually put a bend in the rod!